Welcome! 

Welcome to our bi-weekly Softools App Builder Update, where we'll keep you updated with the latest feature updates, case studies, and community member interviews. It'll be short, sweet, and salient. 

This month's new updates and features include – UI improvements, styling reports, and more! We're also welcoming Rodrigo Llido, who joins the team as an Operations Analyst!

Without further ado, let’s dive in! 

New Feature: More default system variables enabling smoother navigation

You can share your Softools apps and specific records with users and team members faster. 

Softools app studio now enables you to retrieve the app Ids and record Ids that can be used in expressions, making it faster and smoother to build app URLs for further distribution. 

Each Softools record has a web address – it is a construction of the site name, app name, and record ID. Having them as easily retrievable system variables can enable you to make URLs faster, and subsequently, help you in directing users for better navigation within the app. 

Here is a step-by-step guide to using expressions to retrieve app Ids:
String and Numeric Expressions

Welcoming Rodrigo to the Softools family, our newest Operations member

We are thrilled to have Rodrigo Llido join our team! 

Rodrigo is a graduate of the University of Essex, with a specialisation in Mathematics and Economics! 

A budding Softools App Builder and an avid reader of books, he spends his free time playing rugby, travelling and visiting other countries.

You might soon see him at one of the upcoming app-builder surgery sessions - which are our weekly live workshops where you can get your app-building queries solved in real-time. You can save your free seat at the link below.

Amy Slater’s App Builder Journey: Going from a NoCode Dabbler to Softools Operations Analyst

If you’ve been following our previous editions, you would have seen us introducing Amy Slater as a new arrival to our Operations team. 

With an educational background in Psychology, she has also been experimenting with Softools by building apps to track the growth of her plants and their nutrition. Her multidisciplinary approach to learning and working is an inspiration to young app builders, whom she also helps during workshops! 

Click below to catch some highlights from our recent interview with her! 
Amy Slater's App Builder Journey

Our app builder training cohorts are a crucible of many such success stories. The course is designed to give you the most practical app-building knowledge. 

If you have team members or friends who would benefit from learning no-code skills, or if you’d like to brush up on your own Softools knowledge, go to the link below or forward it to someone who needs it, and join our upcoming ABC training cohort starting on 17 of November, Thrusday. 

We are offering free access using the code SOFTOOLSABCFREE

Click below to read the in-depth case study!
 

Continually Improving The UI

We are constantly learning from industry design trends and visual movements. Our dev team has been working on making the Softools platform even more user friendly and efficient for you. 

Kudos to the Dev team, for continually refreshing the UI to give an updated feel and smoother experience to our app builders.
 

Give us your feedback at the link below, tell us what you feel about your app-building experiences, and what changes you would like to see in the UI in the near future!

Make Your Reports Feel Special

Now you can highlight the status of your reports with the colours of your choice! Style your reports according to any colour palette you like. Not only does it keep the UI fresh, but it also helps your app’s users navigate through the reports better. 

These options are now available to configure for both Card and Table Reports.

Feature in Spotlight: Accelerated App Building using Excel Imports

Most of the legacy data silos and databases exist in excel sheets – which still cost time and manual effort to maintain regularly for insights and other workflows. 

A lot of Softools apps, which can automate workflows and integrate with any digital ecosystem, start out as excel sheets first. But they become fully customisable apps soon. 

Softools has the ability to accelerate app development by importing fields from Excel sheets. We used to think building apps in 30 minutes is cool. But we can now achieve this in 3! 

Here’s a real-time run-through of the whole 3-minute process, by our CCO, Vipul Lakhani! 

An Emerging Favourite: Softools is in Capterra’s App Design Software Report 2022!

Softools has been recognised as a highly rated App Design platform in Capterra’s latest App Design Shortlist Software Report! Our work is getting recognized by users and companies across the globe, and their feedback and ratings are emboldening our growth in many many ways! 

You can read the report here: App Design Software 2022 Report by Capterra

A huge shoutout is in order to all the members of our community who have rated us on Capterra, and given their precious feedback.

We need your help to boost the popularity of Softools on Capterra by providing your review. 

If you post a review within the coming week, you can get a reward of $20 USD from Capterra! 

Select one of the links below to post your reviews in the language of your choice!! 

    English (€)             Japanese              English (Yen)                English ($) 

That's all folks! 
 

Thanks for reading, we hope you've enjoyed our short and informative update. We look forward to launching an improvement/feature suggestion scheme, which will feature handsome rewards for the best ideas! More about that in future editions 😉

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for regular weekly updates.

We Love Hearing From You!! 

If you have any feedback regarding this newsletter, we'd love to hear it! These editions aim to enhance your Softools experience - so if there's anything you'd like to hear more or less about, please do let us know! As always, you can get in touch with us via any of our social channels, or reach out to us at abc@softools.net

Catch up on past editions for information on previously announced new features and improvements, including Document Fields, Grid Expression Templates, Child App visibility options, and more! Click the button below!